LSM imposes disciplinary penalties on editor-in-chief and Latvian Radio News head over storm coverage
Latvia's public broadcaster LSM has disciplined editor-in-chief Anita Brauna and Latvian Radio News Service head Zane Eniņa over their professional conduct during August's storm. LSM is also reviewing its crisis management and decision-making procedures.
The board of Latvia's public media organization LSM has imposed disciplinary penalties on editor-in-chief Anita Brauna and Latvian Radio News Service editor-in-chief Zane Eniņa. LSM communications specialist Ilze Lujāne told the LETA agency the penalties relate to professional conduct that did not meet the responsibility level of their positions during August's storm.
The board assessed the actions of staff involved in content production during the storm, taking into account each employee's duties, authority, actual conduct and explanations provided. Other staff involved in the review received verbal reprimands, but the board found no grounds to terminate anyone's employment.
Findings on coverage shortcomings
The review concluded that the severity of the situation was not assessed quickly enough, and decisions on adjusting content and programming were not made in time. The board stressed the problems cannot be attributed to individual staff alone — the storm also exposed shortcomings in internal coordination, decision-making and the ability to swiftly adapt programming. Alongside evaluating individual responsibility, LSM is therefore reviewing its crisis management, decision-making and inter-department cooperation procedures.
LSM had previously acknowledged that Latvijas Radio 1 failed to properly recognize the scale of the situation early on and was too slow to switch to an intensified informational mode, even though in regions where power and communications were down, radio was nearly the only available source of information.
Background
The question of LSM's crisis performance arose after the Latvian Radio News Service staff sent an open letter calling for scrutiny not only of the service and its former head, Uģis Lībietis, but also of the board's and Brauna's responsibility — contact with Brauna had been lost during the storm. Staff pointed to coordination and decision-making gaps following the merger of Latvian Radio and Latvian Television. Lībietis has already resigned, citing responsibility for the news service's performance.
The storm on August 22 was the strongest in recent decades, with gusts exceeding 30 meters per second, initially cutting power to around 277,000 customers and disrupting communications and fuel stations.
